This invention relates to a method of and a device for causing blood coagulation, particularly for use in endoscopy.
In medical applications, such as endoscopy, or hysteroscopy, it is often necessary to be able to cause blood coagulation. From hysteroscopy it is known to provide a probe or pincer which for this purpose is heated to a coagulation-causing temperature which is on the order of substantially 110.degree. to 140.degree. C. However, in the prior art, the instrument is alternately heated and not heated so that a physican using the instrument is forced to observe a temperature-indicating gauge to determine whether the instrument is at the requisite coagulation-causing temperature. This means that he will be distracted from the area where his primary attention should lie, namely from the application of the treatment itself. Moreover, the total coagulation time within which the heating element of the instrument is heated or cooled, is difficult to measure.
Although a suggestion has been made in the prior art to indicate the alternating heating and cooling periods of the device by different signals, this also is not entirely satisfactory because, while the physician is now able to determine whether at any given moment the tool is being heated or is cooling off, he is still somewhat distracted from devoting his entire attention to the treatment he is applying. Moreover, he cannot determine any details of the period during which the tool heats up to the coagulation-causing temperature.